(Washington Institute for Near East Policy) Mehdi Khalaji - The contest between Iran's two conservative factions will worsen as the June 2012 parliamentary elections approach. The usual pattern has been for the president's power to decline in his second term. If this trend continues, the most likely outcome for the 2012 elections will be defeat for those associated with Ahmadinejad. Moreover, the president is constitutionally ineligible to run for another term in 2013, and his faction would have seemingly little chance of winning that election under a different candidate. All of which suggests that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei may once again be well placed to expand his power even further. The writer is a senior fellow at The Washington Institute.
2011-04-22 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive